Facebook: A Cautionary Tale
• Here is yet another example of how a social media misstep can cost you your job — the latest casualty is Brady DeAngelo, now former morning personality on SummitMedia Classic Rock WKLR/Richmond, who was terminated last week after making what was interpreted to be a tone-deaf and inappropriate Facebook post about a woman who was seated next to him at a bar. Making a terrible choice even worse, DeAngelo posted a photo of the woman and tagged the sexually explicit post with the #MeToo hashtag.
As WTVR-TV reports, “Screenshots of the photo and caption spread on Twitter along with a screenshot of a Facebook conversation between a listener and the official Classic Rock 96.5 Facebook account. In that conversation, the listener asked the radio station to investigate Brady’s post.” In a response that appeared to come from DeAngelo himself, the WKLR Facebook account posted, “I deleted because you and a few other people needed to be angry. There’s nothing to investigate. Want me fired? GOOD LUCK!”
A subsequent Facebook post from WKLR read, “Classic Rock 96.5 is all about the music. We love all our listeners and feel that everyone should be treated with respect at all times. Recently one of our employees violated our trust and made some statements that do not reflect our values as a company. Because of this we are conducting an internal investigation and will come up with a response that addresses the situation appropriately. We genuinely and sincerely apologize to all those who were offended.”
On Thursday, August 2, Brady posted, “Today was my last day with Classic Rock 96.5. I made a joke that some thought was inappropriate on my personal Facebook page and it became more of an issue than I believe it should have become.” He added, “I’m sorry if I don’t reply to your message right away but I’m going into hiding for a bit and try to figure some things out haha. Love you guys!”
DeAngelo had worked for WKLR since 2013. RAMP has confirmed that the WKLR morning show will be covered for now by Billy D., a morning show cast member across the hall on Country WKHK (K-95). Because this is an internal personnel issue, management was unable to comment on the record.
